Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Bad beat?

Of course I checked out PokerSavvy's Bad-Beat-O-Meter after reading about it on Iggy's blog because, as you all know, I suffer the most and the worst bad beats in the poker universe. Like last night, what should have been a winning session ended up a $9 loss because of one tough hit I took. I had pocket aces and the flop came an 8-5-3 rainbow. I bet, bet again when a 9 showed on the turn, and was raised when another 9 came on the river. The other guy turned over A-9. He had to go runner-runner 9s to beat me, and the $18 pot that should have been riding on my hip, was now riding on his.

I put this info into the Bad-Beat-O-Meter, and the score was a 708, which rates a mere "Tough One". I think the scoring goes all the way up to 3200 or so. A "Tough One"? I dunno, I'd think the opponent pulling out the only two cards that could save him would be a pretty rough beat. So I pushed things a bit. I created a hand like this--you have pocket aces, the other guy has the 2c-7-d. The flop comes A-A-3c. So you've made quad aces, and you both bet five grand, all-in. He's all-in with nothing, and you have quads. The turn and river come 4c and 5c, giving him the straight flush and the win. Now this would be about as bad as it gets, I'd think. But according to the BBOM, it's rates a mere 1600, a "That Smarts". Yes, it does, a bit.

How bad must a beat be to rate as "Just Nasty"? You bet your immortal soul with quads, lose to the straight flush, and the other guy wrecks your Porsche and screws your girlfriend? How bad is bad? We've all had our bad beats, what's the worst beat?

The worst I could think of came on the last hand of the 2000 World Series, when Chris Ferguson beat T.J. Cloutier. It came down to the last card, Cloutier was ahead, Ferguson held A-9 and needed a nine or else he'd be down to a mere handful of chips. Cloutier, perhaps the greatest no-limit player in the world, who literally wrote the book about tournament no-limit Hold-Em, one of the true giants of the game, lost when Ferguson hit his 9. Jesus became World Champion, and T.J. had to settle for 2nd yet again and suffer the sobriquet "The Best Player to Never Win the Big One". That, my friends, is a tough beat.

posted by Gene @ 11:20 AM   |